hungry vermin

I've been blessed with lots of tomatoes this year. I shouldn't complain. But those nasty vermin have been eating them. At first it was just the ripe, ripe red ones. I'm okay with that. I picked them just not quite done and let them finish on the counter.

The vermin figure out my strategy and started going after the almost, not quite, maybe I'll pick them this afternoon tomatoes. I changed my strategy and started leaving one on the vine to ripen to satisfy their tomato tooth. There were still plenty left for me.

Oh, no. That wasn't enough for those vermin, they wanted more.

Not only are they are they taking a single bite out of each tomato, they are starting to go after the sort of yellow, not even quite yet orange tomatoes.





I still shouldn't complain. I pulled five tomatoes that were eaten and five tomatoes that weren't. I guess I should be glad that my tomato plants are a giant tangle and the inside tomatoes are protected from their teeth. Now I just need to stop thinking about exactly what kind of vermin have been eating my fruit. It definitely can't be rabbits, bite marks are too small. I'm going with possom because I can't stomach the idea of rats in my garden.

garage sale find

Last weekend DH & J stopped by a garage sale on the next street. DH was excited to buy some gas tanks that don't have a safety valve that are so much better than the ones that they make now with the safety valve. Yes, safety valves are suppose to save us from exploding gas tanks but they pour so much better without them.

J asked DH to buy him a camera for $1.00. I think he found a good bargain.






It is a Agfa Jsolette. Since it had the "J" spelling, I think it is from 1937. It seems to work. You can move the lever on top, press the button and the lens opens. From what I can tell, the bellows is in good condition, I couldn't see any rips or holes. J is researching to see if he can make millions or a couple of bucks on it. Honestly, I think he'd rather figure out how to fix it up and use it instead of selling it for a profit.

Family Pizza Night

A just finished up Sr DECATS, a 3 week camp for academically talented students. It was a different experience than her last two years at Jr DECATS. It was much more free, they got to choose their own schedules, they took a major class every day for the morning and had electives in the afternoons, they got to bring their ipods and use them when they wanted as long as they weren't disruptive, they got to eat wherever they wanted. She loved it.

Her major was Culinary Arts and she did lots of cooking. They made ratatouille, crepes, beignets, pizza, pasta and much more. She has been coming home every afternoon begging me to let her cook. With a full day of DECATS for A & J and me juggling carpools to get them both there, we didn't have time for A to cook. Today was the last day at DECATS and she asked to make something.

We decided on family pizza night. A made the dough, J & B & I made the sauce.

We have plenty of tomatoes from the garden.




That picture in only half of what we have picked. I didn't feel like peeling and seeding all of those tomatoes.  It was quite necessary to purchase a food mill. The boys enjoyed using it.








I didn't get an action shot of A making her dough, but she did a fine job without any help from me (except opening the new package of yeast) and the dough turned out beautifully.




The pizza turned out great. I also made a caprese salad with one of the brandywine tomatos, the large cracked pinkish tomatoes that taste so delicious. That was good, but even better when eaten on top of the pizza and the crust dipped in the leftover balsamic/olive oil on the plate. Yum!!






It was a very successful family pizza night.

Buzzing again

A couple of weeks ago, DH asked me if I thought we had bees in the water cutoff box again. I went outside and sure enough, the bees were flying back and forth out of the box. I had to turn the water on and off for DH. The bees made him nervous. They don't bother me.

He requested that I have them removed. I tried to get in touch with the people who took the bees the last time.  Their website is down and they didn't respond to the message I sent them over facebook. I did a google search and found a company that would take the hive and try to move it versus killing them.

He showed up last night to take the bees.








It was more expensive than the donation we made to last time around. He wasn't nearly as friendly and informative as the Texas Honeybee Guild people. I think he thought I was some kind of kook because I was standing out there with the bees, who were quite angry about their hive being disrupted, taking pictures. As I said, bees don't bother me. I just stood still if they buzzed too close to me.

He dusted the water cutoff box with pesticide. I was quite sad about this. I understand why. DH doesn't want them to come back again. I don't want to pay for the removal again. But I love seeing them around my garden. I hate that with all the problems with honeybees, I just aided in killing some of them.

baseball

The boys have been playing baseball this summer. J is still on the team the DH coaches. It has been a rough season for them, but as I told DH last night, you do what you can with the players you've got and you hope they have fun.

They played a game last night against the best team in the league. They held their own and came back in the last inning to score 5 runs. They lost 14-9. J was disappointed. I pointed out that they scored a lot of runs at the end. He said it didn't matter because they couldn't have won anyway. I reminded him that losing 14-9 sounds a lot better than losing 14-4. He agreed. I also reminded him that he had a good game. He had some plays at second. Even if the first baseman dropped the ball and they didn't get the out, he played the ball well. Plus, he got a couple of good hits.











B is playing up in a 1st grade league, coach pitch.  I couldn't take another season of t-ball, neither could he.  It is going fine.  I have no idea if they win or lose, too many kids, too many runs to keep track of it all.  I just hope he's having fun.  This is the first sport/team he's been on where he has said he doesn't want to go to practice.  We'll have to see how he feels about it next year.
















I do love all the faces he makes when he's playing.

the first swim meet

We decided to sign B up for swim team this year. We made A & J do it a few years ago but then I decided to be selfish and sleep in during the summer instead of getting up for 8am swim practice. I debated doing it with B this year because I have A in camp at one school and J in camp at another school and they both have to be there by 9am. I wasn't sure that I could get B to practice and get the other two where they needed to be in time. DH stepped in to help with the swim team. He takes B while I handle the other two.

B is a different child than A & J. I made them go to all the practices but they only swam in one meet because the coaches talked them into it. B was all over swimming fast and getting ribbons and donuts. Then we had conflict. He also signed up to play indoor soccer, which ended up having practices on Thursday nights at the same time as the swim meets. We compromised with going to every other.

Tonight was the first swim meet. As swim meets go, it started off pretty awful. &They wanted all the kids there by 4:45 so they could take a team photo. I had to handle camp pick up for the other two and run some errands. DH & B went to the pool early so they could get a table in shade. We showed up at 5:45 with pizza for dinner. The meet was suppose to start at 6:00. Time went on and on and on. Soon it was 6:30 and then 6:45. Finally someone told me that the computer had messed and it had put every kid in every race. It was after 7:00 before they fixed everything. It was almost 7:30 before they started the meet. They decided to cut all relays and IMs in order to save time. That was nice because we were down to two races.

Once the meet got underway, all was good. B was excited and swam well.



Waiting for the meet to start


A little crooked on backstroke


Jumping in for freestyle


And he's done!


Best part about only one kid in the 5-6 year class swimming on swim team, we were done early. We left after his second race and were home by 8:30.

B had a great time at the meet. He's excited about the next one because he's going to "swim faster and better and win!" That's my B.

BooksmART

Last weekend was BooksmART, a second annual event at the DMA (Dallas Museum of Art) featuring authors of children's books. Last year we were incredibly busy and couldn't make it.  This year I had committed myself to decorating for VBS at the church so we weren't going to make it again.

Luckily for A, last weekend S#2 was not busy. S#2 is a children's librarian and she was very excited to go and she was very excited to take A, because she knows how much A loves to read.

The lineup for BooksmART was amazing.  They had Jack Gantos, 2012 Newbery Award winner, Chris Raschka, 2012 Caldecott Award winner, Rebecca Stead, 2010 Newbery Award winner, and more!

The day started with a scavenger hunt.

Go Van Gogh!


Finally found the clock, not the grandfather clock


posing like this painting


Then they got to meet some authors and get autographs.



Babymouse authors - Jennifer & Matthew Holm


When You Reach Me - Rebecca Stead


Then they got to listen to some authors speak.



Chris Raschka


A helping act out A Ball for Daisy


Jack Gantos, author of Dead End in Norvelt


They all said that Jack Gantos was funny.  I'm disappointed that we read his book from the library.  I wish we owned it and could have had it signed.  Look at how he signed books for Mrs Larremore!

I'm disappointed that I missed such a good day.  I'll have to check the DMA calendar next year and make sure I keep that day free.

Monarch emerges

This morning at 9am, the monarch was still in the chrysalis. At 9:15, I looked over and saw this:








COOL! I was excited but also not sure what to do. Should I just put it outside and let it fly away when it was ready? Or should I keep it until the kids were home? What to do! I finally decided to keep it until the kids were home. I put it in one of the boys' bug box.

When everyone was home from camp we let it out. I had to reach in to get it out of the box.




I tried to take another picture of it on my finger but it flew away immediately. By the time I was able to snap the picture, this was all that was left.




Raising the Monarch was such a cool experience, I might try it again someday.

Almost a Monarch

Here is the Monarch yesterday morning.









Can you see the details of the butterfly in there?

Well, here it is today.









Amazing, isn't it? I have to get the kids up, make lunches, drive to carpool, pick up at swim team and drop off at vbs, then work.

All I want to do is sit and watch a butterfly emerge. I'm probably going to miss it. So sad.

Dumpster diving at Church

Last Tuesday our church started major renovations. It began with a new pastor and an asbestos filled ceiling that needed to be replaced. In 2008 he came up with huge, change the look of everything, church renovations plans. There was major backlash from the members and the recession hit so everything went on the back burner. This year, he started up again with scaled back plans and we're going ahead. I'm excited about the extra bathrooms. Two single bathrooms does not cut it when there are 250 people at mass.

Last Tuesday destruction started. By the time I dropped kids off for the last day of school at 7:30am, a pile of debris was building in front of the church. By lunch time DH got a call from one of his buddies.  He needed to bring his truck up to the church for hauling stuff away.


All the pews


The truck loaded up


A pew on the back porch


Bridal room door to become a coffee table for S#5


Grid from choir loft. Not sure what to do with it.


Maybe a garden trellis on this ugly wall?